Radio frequency identification (RFID) is known as a wireless communication technology using a contactless IC card or tag. Near field communication (NFC) is similar in concept to RFID in that it also uses a contactless IC card. However, NFC differs from RFID in that, while some RFID devices enable communication at a distance of several meters, NFC devices have their antennas brought within about two to four centimeters from each other for communication. Their usages are also different. Therefore, separately from RFID, a standards body called “NFC Forum” has developed technical specifications for NFC and defined them as ISO/IEC 14443 and ISO/IEC 18092.
Recently, smartphones and tablet terminals equipped with an NFC module have appeared. For NFC, passive communication and active communication are defined. In passive communication, a reader/writer communicates with a contactless IC card or tag having no power source. In active communication, two devices both having power sources communicate with each other by alternately acting as an initiator and a target. The NFC standards specify the following three functions: a card emulation function of substituting for a contactless IC card; a reader/writer function for reading an NFC tag; and a peer-to-peer (P2P) function for two NFC devices to communicate with each other.
With the reader/writer function, an NFC device is able to read four types of contactless IC cards of “Type 1” through “Type 4” including Felica® and Mifare®. In NFC, an NFC antenna of one device needs to be brought within the communicable distance of an NFC antenna of the other device. With NFC, however, it is possible to access a contactless IC card having no power source to read or write data and it is only necessary to bring the devices in close proximity to start or finish communication. Therefore, in the smartphones and tablet terminals which can be held with one hand, NFC has been used in various fields including smart posters and electronic settlement.